About Face

Food is so basic and primal and yet so many of us suffer from disordered eating--why? This isn't about extreme cases of anorexia, bulimia, or overeating (though it could be), but the many little ways that we are tortured by food management, food restriction, and the disordered relationships we have with food because of personal, family, cultural and systemic narratives. In this episode Kate talks with food psychology coach Laura Lloyd about the narratives we have about food, our bodies, and exercise. Do you suffer from disordered eating? Have a subconscious aversion to exercise? Do you hate team sports or think maybe you just "aren't that kind of person" to work out? What conclusions have we drawn about food, our bodies, and exercise because of early childhood experiences? What narratives and messages have we inherited from our families of origin and culture? Do you have narratives about managing our food and weight?  This episode also delves into larger narratives of food and our bodies and the role of capit

When you think of the most important stories of your life, they are often about relationships. What stories you tell about yourself and your life often begin with family, parental bonds, siblings, and events that involved these important relationships. Whether you have strong bonds with your family or you have severed ties, you likely continue to have stories and narratives around your early life and how these relationships shaped who you are. I met Aidan “Taco” Jones when he did a stand-up show in Berlin. Most of his bit was about how his Australian mother got pregnant while traveling in Columbia and how he never met his father until this past year. It was as hilarious as it was also heartbreaking and such an insight into his life and the role of humor in his personal growth and healing.  This episode is about the stories of our childhood, how they shape our identity and sense of self, and how returning and uncovering some of these unattended stories can help us towards healing and understanding. We also tal

In 2017, my 18-month old daughter had to have brain scans for a suspected tumor. While in the hospital, she didn't wake up from the anesthetic. It turned out she had caught a superbug while being tested, but the doctors told me that she should also be tested for lung cancer, blood cancers, among other really scary diagnoses. All of this was something I had to navigate in a foreign country, in a foreign language.   Literally, the scariest week of my life.   Eventually she was diagnosed with Chiari Malformation and doctors have since wanted to perform an invasive brain stem surgery/decompression surgery. Last week they told me again that she needs this intervention, but I am terrified. Also, she has no symptoms, which makes the decision making process incredibly difficult and really triggering for me.   In this week's episode, I share what it is like to experience this real fear I am having, but also the ways that I am coping. I will continue to discuss fear inventories and how to use our fears as a gate

Fear is so basic, primal, but also gets at the role of narrative in our lives is fear. Fear is an instinct of course, it drives us to make decisions, to do or not do things. It can get in the way of moving forward, but of course it also has this evolutionary advantage of keeping us safe from harm. Fear narratives can be based on societal messaging, family of origin stories, experiences, and even cultural mythologies, but it is important to understand where our fears are coming from and whether they are authentic and real or if they are just limiting beliefs.   In this episode I share a story about how a family origin story resurfaced while I was on a road trip in Portugal last week and how the fear narrative left me with a stolen wallet. I will also share how learning to inventory fear helped me make one of the most important decisions of my life-- to leave my marriage.    If you are struggling with a life transition, consider working with me directly. I am a certified narrative therapist and work with i

This podcast is broadly looking at the way that stories and reimagined narratives can help us shut down negative thinking patterns, deconstruct damaging systemic narratives, and take the power back in reimagining our own lives. My guest today is Hannah Joy Graves a.k.a. Cult Mother a tarot card reader in Berlin who you also heard on an earlier episode of About Face. While the reading of tarot is by no means scientific or having proven healing powers in a medical way, I do think that it has the power to do what narrative therapy also does, which is look for the answers that lie within us. Like narrative therapy, tarot opens up new possibilities for understanding and gives the individual the power to look at themselves and their lives in a new way. This was something I realized after my own readings with Hannah. It wasn’t about fortune telling, it was about seeing the way that my life circumstances could be approached differently. I love seeing the way life stories drive individual empowerment and the narrative

I started my work in activism at more of the macro level. I went to law school and studied international human rights at the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis. this where George Floyd was murdered and sort of the starting point of the protests against police brutality in the U.S. When I was there I was working for the American Civil Liberties Union on behalf of prison inmates. One of my jobs was to read the letters from the inmates, to decide if they had a claim. Now I can tell you what I was doing was listening, to stories, to emotions, to pain and loss. I was all in.   The problem was that I was acting like a lawyer, And a lawyer’s job, is not about stories, or empathy, or emotions or heart. A lawyers job is to decide whether these facts square with the law. I would normally take these letters and put them in a pile that said, “NO CASE.” What that meant was that whatever personal experiences and injustices were at the heart of these inmate letters, they were not meaningful enough to make a mark on the

Kate interviews Aisling Ní Chába about her internal experience with gender identity from childhood, growing up in an abusive family and repressive Catholic community in Glasgow. She talks about the challenges she faced in finding institutional support and how transitioning forced her to confront gender binary narratives on the personal level as well as in academia as an archaeologist. I did this interview about a week before she entered the hospital for vaginoplasty or gender confirmation surgery. We are talking about gender, but also the underlying scientific narratives that can impact self-identity especially related to bio-constructs.

I'm a divorced, single mom, an alcoholic, I suffer from depression and anxiety, among some other things, and yes, all of this sounds really shitty, but it's not really the story of my life. The way we talk about ourselves and our experiences matters. This episode is about how we can learn to separate ourselves and our identity from our problems, how avoiding certain labels can inhibit our ability to get help, and the role of narrative therapy in finding solutions. 

Stories tell us about where we come from, who we are. They give us meaning and purpose. And without some understanding of how they influence us, a story can keep us in bad habits. I want to use my own life as an example of how my own stories kept me from healing, and how learning new narratives gave me room to heal. I started drinking alcoholically when I was about 16, though I wouldn’t have admitted it. I did know something was “wrong” especially after I wound up in the hospital with alcohol poisoning on my 16th birthday, however, no amount of therapists, family interventionists, even doctors could have persuaded me that I had a problem with alcohol, or that I was an alcoholic. But why? In some ways, it was obvious even then. One of the most powerful transformations I have made in my life was the recovery from alcoholism. This began with the pain of admitting something was wrong and connecting with my own narratives around alcoholism, failure, perfectionism, self-worth, and love. For me, getting sober meant

In our first episode of Restorya, Kate talks about the evolution of About Face and why she’s changed the show and the content to introduce her work in narrative therapy. She shares the origin story of About Face, her own experience with getting sober and recovery through narrative and storytelling and how creating hope around narrative can be beneficial in moving beyond our pain and trauma. Kate delves into what narrative therapy is, her own experience with studying narrative for 20 years and how narrative therapy methods can help you to come to a deeper understanding of yourself, your identity, and create responses to your life in an authentic and empowered way.

I met MISSA BLUE after one of her hypnotic burlesque shows, a political, challenging and riveting performance history of the Black Panthers. Missa Blue is a well known variety performer who has gained international recognition through her highly skilled sword swallowing shows and for being one of the very few woman in the world who are still actively practicing this ancient art form. In 2016 she survived a life threatening accident on stage. This has pushed her to become an activist for Performers of Colour in international show business. She has since been called a role model for her fight against racism and for more visibility of black female performers in the industry. In this episode, I talked to Missa about growing up as a young black girl by white German parents, losing her mother at a young age, battling her father's alcoholism, her struggles with anorexia, and how performance art has brought her healing and restored her power and identity. Missa talks about the challenges faced by artists of color and

Today we are sharing a guest episode from Filter Stories by James Harper about Raymond, a former member of an Amish community who left his home and his country. Raymond's family want him to spend his life using a horse instead of a car, to live off the grid and have little contact with the outside world. But young Raymond is curious and explores the outside world. His father reacts by moving the family into an even more isolated community. Fast-forward 20 years and Raymond is pulling espressos in Melbourne. How did Raymond escape? And how did he end up as a barista in Melbourne? Trigger warning: this episode contains references to sexual abuse. ———————————— If you haven't already, please subscribe to the show and review us on iTunes! https://itunes.apple.com/de/podcast/filter-stories/id1428327760?l=en&mt=2 Follow Filter Stories on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/filterstoriespodcast/ Sign up to the Filter Stories newsletter: http://eepurl.com/dD-sY1 Episode transcript: https://medium.com/@FilterStori

Christine McAlister has endured one of the most horrible and traumatic experiences that I can imagine, and yet, her retelling of the experience and how it changed her is admirable and profound. This is courage, strength, and power in the face of adversity and it’s what I love to learn about from people who have really been through some of life’s toughest lessons.  What happens when the worst thing that you think could ever happen to you, actually happens? How do you make sense of life when you are faced with the greatest loss? You can find Christine's work at www.lifewithpassion.com About Face is a Member of Bear Radio- the premier English speaking podcast network of Berln. Music for this episode was provided by The Space Where She Was from the Album, How to Play Dead.

Lisa was an ambitious 20-something working for the United Nations when a sudden and chronic illness became debilitating, leaving her unable to work. This the story of facing her illness, a shocking diagnosis, and her ability to let go of expectations of life and self. It's a story about losing loved ones, forgiveness, and self-compassion. It's about coming to terms with death and how she redefined a meaningful life.  About Face is a member of Bear Radio Music provided by Miss Kenichi. 

Our guest Tim, shares semi-anonymously about his experiences with an unexpected pregnancy, as a new father, and a truth about his life that changed everything. It's a story that reminds us how to move forward through life's challenges, and how to face the most impossible decisions without regret.  No one’s life turns out perfect. Nothing works out exactly the way that we’ve planned or expected, but the question is what we do with our mistakes, or those moments that force us into difficult decisions, or different paths.  There are so many experiences in life that can injure us, leave us weaker, scared or less. Like Tim said, everyone reacts differently. Some people suffer a tragedy or loss and never really recover. Others are still able to see beauty and possibility and grateful for what they’ve had. This is an episode is about life turns and those unforeseen, unexpected challenges. Betrayals and loss. The real-life concoction of beauty and pain, the way that many of our experiences of love, can also have a sh

The relationships we inhabit can shape and define us, and how we see ourselves. Who we choose to love and let love us matters, because in the wrong hands, we may suffer from neglect, abuse, oppression, and even, the total loss of self. One of the most difficult decisions is to know when someone we love is no longer serving us, or worse, actually causing us harm. What does it take to break away, and how do we know when to do it? This is a story about love, but also co-dependency and the very complicated nature of emotional abuse. But more, it’s a story about how one woman used her own oppression to find her voice. My guest today is Reema Zaman. Reema is an award-winning writer, visual artist, actress and speaker, and the author of the memoir I Am Yours. She is from Bangladesh and immigrated to New York When she was 18. When she was 25, she fell in love and married into a relationship that shifted the direction of her life. She writes and talks about what it is like to fall into emotional abuse as well as how t

Naniso shares his experience growing up in the generation following Apartheid and describes the difference between institutionalized and systemic racism versus other forms of covert oppression. We talk about a particular instance where he was physically assaulted and detained at an airport and how the attack figures into his consciousness, as a thought leader and in how he interacts with the world. The way that we see ourselves in the world begins with our family, where are we in the pecking order. As we grow up, we learn more about who we are and where we come from. Even as children, we internalize our individuality through the subtext and organization of our communities and in the context of other social constructions like gender, ethnicity, and nationality. Consciously and unconsciously, how we see ourselves is shaped by how we fit into the world. But, what happens when your identity, the way you see yourself is shaken beyond your control, how do you reckon with this realization- maybe you aren’t who you t

Tania Lacy was a famous Australian television personality during the 80s and early 90s before she got fired for hijacking the station in protest. Losing her job led to a loss of identity and a reckoning with her own sense of self. This is a story about her height as a celebrity and the fall into obscurity and heroin addiction. This is a story about Tania's ballet accident that ruined her dance career, her transition into  choreography and Kylie Minogue's "Locomotion" video and her rise as a television star and woman in comedy. We talk about why fortune and fame are never enough, how to forgive ourselves, and why strength and power must come from within.  About Face is a member of Bear Radio, the premier English speaking podcast network of Berlin. Music for this episode was provided by Miss Kenichi. Website: misskenichi.com Album purchase: https://misskenichi.bandcamp.com/album/fox  

Why are some of us capable of changing our lives and finding the right path while others get lost along the way? What influence does mental illness play in our ability to recover? How do we navigate our way out of broken homes, addiction, and family mental illness? This episode features Justin Evans from The Peripheral and The Generation Why, one of the top-ranking true crime podcasts. We talked about his family history of mental illness, how to mourn loved one who has already been lost to a disease, and how he paved his own way.   About Face is a member of Bear Radio, the premier English speaking podcast network of Berlin. Music for this episode was provided by Miss Kenichi. Website: misskenichi.com Album purchase: https://misskenichi.bandcamp.com/album/fox    

Tattoos, piercings, punk rock, rockabilly- the look and the subculture can have a hard-shell appearance, but what about those individuals underneath? What is the relationship between subculture and individual identity? Is there a correlation between mental health and extreme tattooing? How do subcultures give us strength and armor, and at what point are we lost to ideology? Is there a false security in our fight for belonging?  This is one woman’s journey--how she found hope, strength and security in a subculture, while also learning to shed the armor and uncover her own truth and find an authentic direction for herself. This episode deals with mental health, including anxiety and depression, drug and alcohol addiction, suicide, loss, and recovery.